Iraq had suffered a heavy defeat in March 1991, when a combined force of 34 countries headed by the US and Britain defeated Iraqi forces under Saddam Hussein. A year earlier Iraq had invaded Kuwait for financial reasons. The US pushed Iraqi forces out of Kuwait, but did not invade Iraq. Iraq was economically broken and militarily  contained.

Sanctions began not long thereafter. Under pressure from Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries, Washington relented a bit, by allowing Iraq to sell oil, in return for supplies such as food, medicine, agriculture and other ‘non-offensive’ imports.

 In 1996, a deal was struck, through the UN. This deal was called the UN “oil for food” program. The key was which bank would handle this account. And this is where the fun starts.

 The United Nations was born out of the Bretton Woods agreement, in 1944. Among other things, the World Bank, the IMF, the GATT came into being, in addition to the United Nations. Since the Americans were the victors in World War 2, they called the shots.

 In America itself, one family more than others held control over the financial and political landscape. This was the Rockefeller family. One father, and five sons. The most energetic of these five sons was Nelson, and the most politically involved. When it came time to find a location for the headquarters, the Rockefellers wasted no time, and purchased a plot of land on the east side of Manhattan for the sum of $8m. This land was then donated to the UN; and a complex was built on this site. The entire project was run by Nelson; from his architects, to the construction of the complex, and its costs. In addition, the UN banked solely with the Chase Manhattan Bank. From all this, and more, one can say that the UN was and is part of the Rockefeller complex, or Network of Power.

 The head of the UN is always a Rockefeller appointee. But the real executive power does not lie with the General Secretary, but rather with his no 2, who is tied into the Rockefeller complex.

  So when the question of which bank would handle the UN ‘oil-for-food’ program with Iraq, one can realize how upset David Rockefeller was when this contract was given to a French bank – the Paribas Bank, in Paris. To add insult to injury, this bank was the key oil bank for the French Rothschilds. It’s a fact of life at the highest levels of international finance, that whoever controls the finance of a country would automatically have a great influence in its political destiny. And so it was with this deal.

 David’s anger knew no bounds. The head of the UN at that time was a former foreign minister of Egypt, Boutros-Boutros Ghali, or BBG, for short. David fired BBG! Urged on by both France and Britain, many African countries called for another African to head the UN. And so, David chose a Ghanian diplomatic working for the UN to head it. This was Kofi Annan!

Fast forward to 1999-2000. The regime sanction against Iraq was weakening. Oil was being smuggled out. Imports were smuggled in. And countries such as Russia, China, and France were entering into oil and economic deals with Iraq. Ready to be activated once sanctions officially ended.

In Europe, in response to the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the resulting unification of the two German states into one, the European financial elite, headed by the Rothschild family, introduced the Euro. This was to take effect on January 1, 2000. Subtle hints were sent to Saddam Hussein by European financiers saying something to this effect: “why sell your oil in US dollars. The US dollar is the currency of the enemy. Change your oil sales from the dollar to the new European currency, the Euro”.

 After much deliberation, and under constant attack from the US and Britain, Saddam got fed up. Emerging from a cabinet meeting on September 14, 2000, Saddam Hussein made an announcement that henceforth all Iraq’s oil sales will be denominated in the Euro, instead of the US dollar- the currency of the enemy!

  Little did Saddam Hussein realize that he had just signed his death warrant. As far as New York was concerned, he was a dead man walking.

  It was also at this point that the Presidential elections were heating up in the US, especially around the Florida state voter count. The candidates were George Bush jr and Al Gore. The Bush family have been in service to the Rockefeller family since the days of his grandfather dealings with Standard Oil during the 1890s. This made Bush the Rockefeller candidate. Al Gore and his no 2, senator Lieberman were backed by the Rothschild family. Do note that Gore was Clinton’s vice-president, and New York considered him a traitor for securing the backing of the Rothschilds. Since this time, both Al Gore and Joe Lieberman have been confined to political obscurity on the American landscape. One does not hear about them anymore.

 When the Florida vote recount was heating up, David Rockefeller pulled in his ace trouble shooter, James Baker 111. Baker sorted out this mess, and got George Bush the victory so desired by David. Ugly stories emerged of the votes being rigged, but what else is new?

 For the Rockefellers, it was absolutely vital that Bush win. And he did. In January 2001, Bush became the next President of the US. According to many insiders, at one of the first cabinet meetings, Bush wanted to talk only about Iraq, and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Why was this issue given so much priority with the new Bush administration? The answer is simple. The future of the petro-dollar! Let us do an illustration for you.

• Daily global production = 80 mbp
• Exports/imports                   = 40 mbp.
• 40 mbpd @ $20                    = $800m
• 40 mbpd @ $30                   = $1.2bn
• 40 mbpd @ $50                   = $2bn
• 40 mbpd @ $100               = $4bn

This is how much dollar demand there was for oil imports. DAILY!

In 2000, the average daily global consumption of oil was about 80 mbp. Many countries produce oil. After domestic consumption, any surplus was exported. And those countries whose consumption exceeded domestic production imported the difference. Roughly about half of daily production was exported. These exports generated dollar income. Likewise, imports of oil required payment in US dollars.

Another point to consider. Ever since 1974, New York would not tolerate any nation to trade in currencies other than the US dollar. Witness the fight between New York and France/Germany/Iran in the 1970’s. Furthermore, since 1983, the US went from being a net creditor to being a net debtor. It had run out of foreign reserves. And it had to rely on countries with dollar surpluses to fund its trade deficit, and its internal government budget deficits. To make the dollar a global currency, it deindustrialised its economic base, and outsourced its production to low cost regions around the world, especially China. It became an importer of last resort. 

 This resulted in making the dollar a reserve currency. And it was based on the fact that the oil trade was denominated in dollars. Were the oil trade to move away from the dollar, it world have a serious and negative impact on the future role of the dollar in global finance. Many nations would not keep as much dollars in its reserves. The dollars share of global trade would decline, and its value would fall. The resulting fall would force the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates to make it attractive. The end result would be to reduce America’s global influence.

  By the year 2000, the US was running an overall foreign deficit and budget deficit of close onto $3 bl a day! Its foreign deficit was covered by the influx of dollars being invested in US government securities (treasury bills), real estate, the stock and bond markets, and overall investment into American businesses. Furthermore, Wall Street had engineered the rise of the dotcom bubble between 1998 and early 2000. In April the dotcom bubble burst.

 Confidence in the US economy and the dollar was fast evaporating. It was not a good time for the dollar.

 Iraq’s exports at this time under the UN programme was 1.6 mbpd. The US was importing 1 mbpd of this oil. When Iraq switched to the Euro for its oil sales, it meant that the US could not pay for this oil with dollars, and was forced to pay in Euros. This was too much for David Rockefeller.

At the rate of 1 mbpd, at $20 per barrel, the amount was equal to $20 m per day. Remember, total exports was 40 mbpd. Only 4 % of this was denominated in Euro. The result: The dollar fell against the Euro by 20% over the next 30 months!

 And had the US not done something to stop this gathering momentum, who knew how low the dollar would go. Furthermore, many other OPEC nations were watching to see what Washington reactions would be. If Washington did nothing, then it’s safe to assume that other nations would jump onto the Euro pricing system for their oil sales. And what about other commodities. Would they too move over to the Euro? These were assumptions at that time.

There was a danger that the US would slide from its position as a global superpower into irrelevance. And this would free many nations from the brutal and gangster tactics of Washington in its hold on global power and dominance. But, alas, it was not to be.

 America’s economic and geopolitical competitors were already in Iraq. France, Russia, China, and others were waiting in the wings to activate their economic agreements with Iraq, once sanctions ended. Secondly, were Iraq to succeed in ending sanctions, then everything was in place for that country to rise up again, but this time on a Euro basis. This, America could not allow. Remember the Rockefeller family motto:” Competition is a sin”. America had to go in, and regime change Iraq, or its decline as a world power would accelerate. They were playing for the highest possible stakes. But, a way had to be found; an excuse, a cover under which this invasion would be possible.

The world was sold a con job about Iraq.  Resistance was fierce, both on the street and from many governments around the world. The most notable resistance came from Russia, China, France and Germany.

Nonetheless, the US got its way, and the invasion started in March 2003. Within 6 weeks, the government of Iraq was toppled. In June of that year, Iraq began to resume its oil sales. But this time, in dollars! This brought a huge sigh of relief in Wall Street, and Washington.

Within a few months Saddam’s two sons were killed by American troops in Mosul, and Saddam Hussein captured in December. And two years later Saddam Hussein was hanged in such a way as to show to the world that it was not wise to mess with the American/Rockefeller Empire. And if you do, this would be the end result.

There is much, much more to this story. We will leave it for later issues.